Delusive Fate

#024

Huff, huff, huff. As I was barely breathing shallow breaths, I heard Kim Jin-oh’s voice. I couldn’t lift my head. A little later, I felt something being removed from my numb calf. My body floated in the air. Kim Jin-oh was carrying me in his arms and running.

“Don’t close your eyes, breathe! You crazy bastard, what were you thinking acting so sluggishly there! Do you really want to die that badly? Are you insane? If you want to die, do it when I’m not watching!!!!”

“Jin-oh… my… leg… Did I lose my leg…?”

“Your legs are dangling just fine, so shut up, you son of a bitch!”

Kim Jin-oh cursed with bulging veins in his neck. My head hurt from his hoarse voice screaming, but I was grateful because it kept me from losing consciousness.

As I lay in a safe place, watching Kim Jin-oh and the team members struggle, I thought that if I made it out of here safely, I should gift that guy something like pear and bellflower root tea. I had heard somewhere that pears and bellflower roots were good for the throat. It was something I learned when Ki Baek-woo once had a severe throat cold, and I went around asking people about remedies.

[Your annoyingly loud voice saved my life, Kim Jin-oh.

Keep taking good care of your throat so you can yell at the top of your lungs again in future emergencies.

– Compensation from Hunter Lee Han-sol]

I should give him a gift with a note like that… Kim Jin-oh… I’ll consider you a friend now….

I closed my eyes while thinking useless thoughts to forget the pain. I don’t know if I fell asleep or lost consciousness. Anyway, when I opened my eyes, I was in the recovery room of the B District Center, more than half a day had passed since the raid ended, and I heard the incredible news that in the meantime, three healers (though D-rank or lower) had performed emergency treatment and even surgery on my leg.

“Shit, hey, are you conscious?”

“Kim Jin-oh…?”

“Hey, how many of these are there?”

As I was looking around, Kim Jin-oh’s voice suddenly popped out from the side, startling me.

Why is this bastard sticking around here? Were we close enough for this? Kim Jin-oh… Despite his foul mouth, he seems to have quite a kind heart….

Thinking to myself, I counted the fingers Kim Jin-oh shoved in front of my face.

“Middle fingers on both hands… two in total. Double bird…”

“Ha, shit, at least your mind isn’t completely gone. That’s a fucking relief. When I came to pick you up after the raid ended, you were closing your eyes, so I thought you had finally kicked the bucket! Lee Han-sol, you’re really an annoying bastard, you know that? Why are you acting like this, why! Do you really have multiple lives? Are you deliberately doing this shit because you want to reset your life? Huh?”

Kim Jin-oh continued speaking as fast as a rapper. He also looked like a hip-hop rapper full of useless anger. I let Kim Jin-oh express his anger sufficiently before asking when he finally closed his mouth.

“But… did you contact anyone?”

“What? What contact?”

“No, I mean, did you tell anyone that I almost died and even had surgery?”

“Who, the center director here? To process industrial accident compensation? We’re hunters, so that doesn’t apply to us.”

“Are you crazy? Why would you tell the center director? Obviously, I’m talking about Baek-woo.”

I felt like the things I couldn’t tell anyone were rapidly increasing. This time too, I absolutely couldn’t tell the truth. Not even to Ki Baek-woo.

That the moment I opened my eyes, I was briefly elated seeing my immobile left leg.

Since I was injured this badly… since I almost died this time, Baek-woo would rush here right away, wouldn’t he? He might stick by my side and never leave until I fully recover. Then I’d be truly happy after such a long time.

Ah, I want to see Ki Baek-woo soon.

I was happy, immersed in such thoughts… I couldn’t possibly voice these kinds of thoughts that seemed psychotic even to myself. If caught, I’d be immediately sent to a closed ward for being seriously crazy.

Anyway, with a face full of expectation, I looked at Kim Jin-oh, and he snorted.

“Ah, that Ki Baek-woo? Of course he was contacted.”

“Really?”

“He’s your emergency contact, isn’t he? The center already contacted him. I also contacted him separately after going through your phone.”

“What do you mean ‘that bastard’? Do you want to die?”

“You’re being ridiculous. Is this how you talk to the person who saved your life… I really want to beat you up.”

“Is our Baek-woo coming?”

“Shit, how would I know that? You’re really annoying… You’ve been making such a fuss all this time, but when you actually got hurt, he didn’t seem to care much.”

Kim Jin-oh grimaced and stood up. He showed me his middle fingers on both hands again and cursed with a disgusted expression.

“Someone like you has nothing pretty except your face, I must be crazy. The time I wasted sitting here is so damn precious. Whether your leg turns into a club or not. Just get lost.”

After telling me to get lost, Kim Jin-oh left himself. Of course. I’m the patient, and he’s not. He’s the one who should get lost from the hospital room.

Anyway, I waited for Ki Baek-woo with a joyful heart. Kim Jin-oh did say nonsense like Ki Baek-woo didn’t care about my condition, but he’s originally a guy who says a lot of shitty things, so I didn’t pay attention. It was probably all bullshit he was spouting randomly.

When Ki Baek-woo comes, I should pretend to be in a lot of pain. Why do I seem to be pretending so much these days? At this rate, I might even win a Best Actor award… Then for my acceptance speech, I should say, “Ki Baek-woo, hyung loves you incredibly! Even if I give birth to your child!” That’s how we’ll become a publicly recognized couple in front of the whole nation. Then Ki Baek-woo won’t be able to run away anywhere. Hehe.

The pointless thoughts I was aimlessly continuing were suddenly interrupted by a nurse who entered the room. The nurse, who came to check on my condition, scolded me tremendously for being awake and moving around. From what I roughly heard, it seemed like she was asking why I didn’t press the nurse call button when I woke up. The nurse turned her back, saying she would call the doctor soon. I grabbed the nurse and asked once again.

“Excuse me, nurse!”

“Yes?”

“Um, was my guardian contacted?”

“Guardian… You mean your emergency contact?”

“Yes.”

“Yes, we contacted them before the emergency surgery.”

I chuckled. The nurse looked me over with an expression that suggested she had seen something strange, then left the room. A little later, the doctor and the recovery team leader came in.

To them, who were asking various questions about my condition, I asked once again.

“Excuse me, doctors.”

“Anyway, the surgery went well, uh, yes?”

“You did contact my guardian, right?”

The team leader answered.

“You mean Hunter Ki Baek-woo? Our team already contacted him, so don’t worry. We even got verbal consent for the surgery.”

The doctor made an extremely surprised expression and looked me over, asking, “You know Hunter Ki Baek-woo?”

“Yes, he’s like family to me.”

“That S-rank Ki Baek-woo hunter?”

“Is there another Ki Baek-woo?”

“Oh…”

“Come on, doctor, why are you making that expression? Don’t you believe that a C-rank knows Ki Baek-woo?”

“Well… it’s not that…”

“Ha, anyway, our Baek-woo will be here soon, so you can confirm then whether what I’m saying is true or not.”

“I’m not particularly interested to that extent… Anyway, the surgery went well, and it wasn’t a simple fracture, but the bone was almost pulverized, so it was quite a complex case. But I put it back together excellently, so don’t worry. It will take some time to recover, and just don’t move for the next few days. Use a wheelchair for a while. Uh, also… yes. The degree of burns was severe, so the skin was in terrible condition, but three healers from our center worked on regenerating it, so don’t worry too much about that either. The metal pins in your leg… we’ll have to see how it goes, but since you’re a hunter, we should be able to remove them in about 2 to 3 weeks.”

The attending physician and team leader took turns explaining various precautions and paperwork processes in great detail and at length.

Both of them were just saying what they wanted to say, so I couldn’t focus, let alone retain any information. The only thing that stuck in my memory was what the team leader said about Ki Baek-woo. Even then, it was just that Ki Baek-woo, as my guardian, had consented to the emergency surgery over the phone, and the consent form was signed electronically.

Anyway, the team leader and the attending physician, who were having a rap battle in both my ears, suddenly remembered they had other things to do in the middle of their excited chatter and left together in a hurry.

Working people are truly unpredictable beings….

The accident was sudden, and my whole body was exhausted from the major injury, but my mind was clearer than ever. I was even feeling a bit excited.

They say the fox waiting for the little prince to come at four o’clock is happy from three o’clock. I was happy right now waiting for Ki Baek-woo, not knowing when he would come.

If Ki Baek-woo comes tomorrow, I’ll be happy all day, and if he comes the day after tomorrow, I’ll surely be happy for two days straight. Does this mean I’m not even as good as a fox, or is it proof that I’m a hundred times more sophisticated animal than a fox?

Do foxes fall in love? Do they love like humans, no. Not all humans love like Ki Baek-woo and me. We were… like each other’s only food. We were allergic to everything in the world, able to consume only each other.

We could only live with each other and would inevitably die without each other. Ki Baek-woo was much less talkative than me but said more embarrassing things, and according to what he once said, we were people with connected souls.

Like melted and fused pieces of iron, we were stuck to each other so tightly that we couldn’t tell who was who.

Ki Baek-woo said he wouldn’t mind if his own self disappeared. He said he just wanted to be absorbed as a part of Lee Han-sol and live as Lee Han-sol. Then there would be no need to be apart even for a moment, he could know every detail about Lee Han-sol, and become an existence that could never be cut away. So he said he wanted to completely become a part of me.

Then I would laugh at what nonsense that was and poke Ki Baek-woo’s cheek.

“I don’t like that, then only you would be happy, not me. Because I wouldn’t be able to see you. So just stay as you are.”